The Roger Moore era (1973-1985) Part 1

 

With Connery and Lazenby out of the picture, Connery refused the then unheard of sum of $5.5 million to return, it was time for a new James Bond, many candidates were considered including Jeremy Brett ("My Fair Lady"), William Gaunt (known for the show "The Champions"), and future Bond actor Timothy Dalton while Michael Billington, known for the series UFO was a frontrunner for the role, meanwhile United Artists wanted an American for the role, considering Burt Reynolds and Paul Newman, the role went to Roger Moore, an already established star known for playing the titular role on the television "The Saint". Moore was said to have been considered before in both "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Diamonds are Forever" but his schedule prevented him from doing so. With Moore taking over the role, it began a cycle of subsequent film audiences being given their own James Bond, this would also start the never ending debate of who was the best and who was the worst. Moore's tenure was the longest, he played the role for seven films in the cycle of 12 years, Connery did six, but if you count the unofficial Bond movie "Never Say Never Again", it ties with Moore. 

At the time of his first Bond movie "Live and Let Die", Moore was 45, considering that Connery was 41 when he lasted the role in "Diamonds are Forever",  you wonder how long would the producers would want Moore to play the role, but despite his age Moore looked a lot younger in his earlier Bond films. His first film, LALD combined the comical with the mystical, Bond sets out to take out Mr. Big who is revealed to be Dr. Kananga, along the way he takes on his hooked henchman Tee Hee, Samedi, his mystical sidekick and Solitare, his personal sidekick and lover. It feels like the filmmakers were trying to figure who Moore's Bond was, intentional trying to distance themselves from Connery's Bond. There is no visit to M's office, Bond has a chick stashed away, when M and Moneypenny visit his home, there is no appearance from Q, Moore does the funny one liners, something he was always good at. Watching the film, you'd know the filmmakers were trying to jump on the bandwagon of the blaxploitation genre, and it's funny to see 007 walk into a 70s Harlem bar and called a honkey. Both the bus chase and the boat chase are the high points of the movie, but I would favour the boat chase as it has very good bits of humour and few nice gags from the racist Louisiana sheriff JW Pepper, who was said to be added into the script based on a racial BTS situation during filming. Jane Seymour makes Solitaire one of the most memorable Bond women, Yaphet Kotto is great as Kananga while his disguise as Mr Big is laughable, but it's always nice to see a villain, younger than Bond, thinking he could take him on in a fight. The theme song by Paul McCartney and Wings is one the best in the series. It's worth nothing that this is David Hedison's first appearance as Felix Leiter, and would reprise the role 16 years later, both Moore and Hedison were best of friends and there was a chemistry that already existed before cameras started rolling. Overall I like "Live and Let Die" and I feel like it was a great start to the Moore era.

Following LALD, "The Man with the Golden Gun" was the next film in Moore's tenure as Bond, released in 1974, in this film, Bond has to face off against in duel against the assassin Scaramanga, along the way he gets to wear a third nipple, fight Nick Nack, Scaramanga's dwarf sidekick and shares some screen time with Sheriff Pepper again. This film is what I consider a bad Bond film, the plot of Bond going up against his evil counterpart sounds like an entertaining idea, but it fails on almost every level, to start, Christopher Lee is fine as Scaramanga, he exodes the charm and charisma that suits the character, plus he seems like a man who could take down 007, his evil scheme of stealing solar energy systems is boring and they should have stuck with the assasination of 007, Maud Adams is really good as Scaramanga's sex slave Andrea, and we something not very often from Moore's Bond when he slaps her from information, and Moore has a few good lines. While Britt Eklund is attractive, he character is pretty clueless, she gets locked in a car that sprouts wings and flies away. In the scenes when Bond is talking with Andrea, she hides away in the bed sheets, and then hides in the closet feels like an episode of a sitcom. Bond having to fight off against Herve Villaichez's Nick Nack and locking him in a suit case is silly. The action is pretty ho hum and the climax in the funhouse is dull and is not as exciting as it should as you would expect how the duel would end. After the "Man with Golden Gun", both Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzmann parted ways when Saltzmann was in deep debt for some business deals that didn't pay off and had to sells his 50% of shares to United Arists, ending his involvement in the Bond series.

With the departure of Saltzmann, Brocolli was left, but was determined to make another Bond film with "The Spy Who Loved Me", which would establish Moore's Bond persona, and would allow him return for four additional films in the series. Moore's Bond is at his best in the film's teaser opening, where he is in bed with a woman and is chased by Russian baddies led by Sergi (Michael Billington) and skis off into the abyss, which is a spectacular opening, this sequence is one of the best the series had done, on e long take with no cuts. Bond's world in "Spy" is filled with outrageous gadgets, beautiful women, the set pieces are huge and the villains are larger than life with a henchman with metal teeth, but unlike Connery's Bond films, this one doesn't take itself very seriously as if they were just saying "we're going to have fun, sit back and enjoy it", at one point when Bond is talking through the desert, the theme from "Laurence of Arabia" plays, just to give the audience a laugh, it's more like a fantasy adventure film than just a typical spy film and it's a lot of fun, Barbara Bach is great as the main Bond girl and is a memorable one, Jaws is a great henchman, some may feel that he's too cartoonish, but he's menacing and just believable enough to be entertaining and he fits right in with the whole feel of the film, Karl Stromberg is an okay villain, he mainly says some icy dialogue and pushes a lot of buttons, his underwater hideout is pretty cool though, seeing all the outrageous gadgets Q gets to work on is pretty fun, the car chase featuring the Lotus was pretty fun where from being on the road, then into the water, the battle in the oil tanker is a great and a fun climax to the film. Overall this is one of Moore's greatest hits next to "Live and Let Die" and the most fun Bond movie out of his.

At the end of TSWLM, the end credits stated that James Bond would return in "For Your Eyes Only", however after the success of Star Wars, these plans changed, the filmmakers thought that it was time to send 007 into space in "Moonraker", a movie that gets a lot of attention mostly negative, the main reason is sending James Bond into outer space, that makes it the most unique Bond film, however outlandish, silly and  unbelievable the series had gotten before, this took it to a whole new level for fans as it would get away from the down-to-earth spy thrillers that gave birth to the character as any in the series, it would also escalate the comic fantasy elements that started in TSWLM, and it was the biggest Bond hit up to that point, there is some fun stuff in here, best part is probably the pre-title sequence when Bond is skydiving off a plane with Jaws tailing him, the boat chase in Venice is good until it end on an over the top joke, the cart fight would have been great if the use of blue screen wasn't so blatant, again it ends with an over the top joke, they managed to squeeze some suspense when Bond is trapped in the centrifuge, where Moore's bond looks truly helpless and plays it straight without any wit, Dr. Goodhead 's (played Lois Chiles) most distinguishing characteristic is her name, she doesn't any more of an impression than that, the villain Hugo Drax (played by Michael Lonsdale), while a good performance, isn't nothing special either, and the most striking thing is the huge sets he walks in, Jaws' return would have been a good idea if he was played less for laughs, such a unique henchman should have a menace and threat to the hero, and having him fall in love and become Bond's ally in the end wasn't worth it for him. For, "Moonraker" isn't the worst or my least favourite, it's never consistently delivers, but it's not boring, it's a silly piece of fluff entertainment.

After "Moonraker", it was decided that it was time to bring James Bond back down-to-earth, and double down on the use of gadgets and over the top-ness, following the financial disappointment of a film distributed by UA, called "Heaven's Gate" and costs had to be cut, the result was to make "For Your Eyes Only", Moore had initially signed a three picture deal as Bond when he first started and went by a film-by-film basis deal, leaving his involvement uncertain, A number of actors were considered to play the role including Lewis Collins, best known for playing Bodie on the British TV series "The Professionals", Ian Oglivy, known for playing Simon Templar in the series "The Return of the Saint" and Michael Billington was considered to play the role again and came close to being cast, however Moore returned at the eleventh hour as director John Glen had wanted the movie to have an established Bond instead of a new actor. The opening sequence of the film of Bond visiting Tracy's grave was intended to establish a new actor in the role and the history of the character. While Moore has been pigeonholed for playing a light-hearted version of the character, "For Your Eyes Only" is a perfect example of Moore's Bond in darker-light and playing the role seriously, the promise of stripping away all the gadgets and humor, which were so prevalent in Moore's past outings is delivered. This a straight up spy thriller which no gimmicks or winking at the audience, There is some light humor, for example, the PTS which features the return of Blofeld has it's moments along with an odd piece of dialogue in the history of the series. The FYEO, Bond is assigned to recover, a McGuffin known as the ATAC device, which was previously recovered by the Havlock family until there murder, before it falls into the wrong hands, I think the best Bond films usually have an complicated plot. The action scenes are consistently great throughout the film, Bond survives them through ingenuity and doesn't get an easy save by Q's gadgets, although Q does showed up to help the story move along with his indentigraph, which might look cheesy today, but still fun than watching Bond flip through mugshots. The car chase is great, where Bond's lotus is blown by by the villains and he escapes with Melina, the ski sequences are great and fast paced, the climax of Bond climbing up to the villain's lair is an intense scene and the stunts are pretty cool. The cast is all good, Julian Glover as Kristatos is a charming villain, Topol as Columbo is a fun character and Carol Bouquet as Melina is a memorable and tough Bond girl, though the Bibi is annoying, I think she'sjust meant to be, the henchmen look pretty mean and look like they can do some nasty damage to Bond. The scene where Bond kicks the assassins' car off the roof is particularly memorable, Moore was apparently reluctant to film it though but is a real highlight. After FYEO, Moore would consider stepping down due to his age and in some shots when he's with Bibi it looks borderline criminal, Moore would return but he would leave the serious interpretation of Bond behind and go back to his lighter style.